"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Matt Cain pitched 5 inning of no-hit ball and the Giants offense took advantage of poor fielding by the Nationals. The bullpen hung on for W. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 5. BA= .282. Pagan had the only 2 RBI's on the day for the Giants. I guess he gets credit for the RBI on a muffed force play at 2B when Trea Turner's backhand shovel toss went awry. Had it been on target, Pagan would likely have been doubled up, ending the inning, so the RBI is charitable.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .290. Buster did not figure in the scoring, but looked good at the plate driving balls to every part of the park.

Conor Gillaspie- Gillaspie hit one about as far from a defensive player as it is possible to hit it, a drive that just kept going and rolling to the base of the R-CF wall. Conor cruised into 3B standing up. He later scored the first run on the Turner muff at 2B.

Madison Bumgarner- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .179. Everybody had a laugh then Boch used Bummy as a PH for Matt Cain in the bottom of the 5'th inning. Bumgarner responded by blasting one off the bricks in RF for a double. Boch then sent Shark in to PR for Bummy and he later scored on a throwing error by Anthony Rendon.

Denard Span- 1 for 1, 3B. BA= .257. Span has been sitting with a contusion on his leg. Bochy sent him up as a PH to lead off the 7'th inning. Span hit a sharp grounder up the middle that just kept rolling to the CF wall and he strolled into 3B, then scored on a soft flyball single by Pagan.

Matt Cain- 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 5.53. Cain had great looking stuff. He struggled with command of the FB, especially in the first 2 innings, but he was his old unhittable self up in the zone.

The Giants got an immediate boost from newcomer Eduardo Nunez and 5 shutout innings from the bullpen to salvage a shaky start by Jake Peavy. Key Lines:

Eduardo Nunez- 2 for 5, 2B, SB(28). BA= .297. Brandon Crawford was unavailable with a sore hand(although he did come in to play SS in the 9'th inning), so Nunez stepped in and batted leadoff despite a minuscule walk rate. Of course, he came up with the bases loaded 3 times. He did deliver a 2-run double in the 4'th to drive in the Giants first two runs. He left 7 others on base, but hey, that's better than what the Giants have been doing with the bases loaded!

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .287. Maybe with Pence in the lineup, Buster won't be going up there as often needing to hit a HR to get the Giants back in the game.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .299. Giants needed a good hitting OF a the trade deadline. Maybe Pence is that guy.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 1, 3 BB. BA= .282. With Pence back in the lineup, maybe Belt can walk his way out of his slump?

Joe Panik- 1 for 3, SF. BA= .251. Panik got the Giants an insurance run with a bases-loaded sac fly. Hey again! That's better than what the Giants have been doing with the bases loaded!

Jake Peavy- 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 5.47. From the K's and BB's, Peavy was dealing but he'd thrown 78 pitches through 4 IP, and with with runners on base, Bochy lifted him for PH Mac Williamson who drew a walk to load the bases and set up Nunez' double. Mad eventually scored on a groundout.

Bullpen- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. This bullpen is still capable of games like this where they win the game by shutting down the opposing team, not just for 3 or 3 innings, but 4 or 5. New lefty Matt Reynolds started the 5'th inning buy walking Ben Revere, but he struck out Bryce Harper. Hunter Strickland pitched 1.2 shutout innings. Javier Lopez walked his 8'th LH batter this season(he's also hit one with a pitch). Casilla got the 2-run Save(23).

Indians acquire Andrew Miller from the Yankees for prospects Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield. Apparently the Yanks like those two better than anything the Giants could have given them. The Indians may also be close to acquiring Jonathan Lucroy, although Sheffield was rumored to be part of that trade too.

The Padres were able to get a net savings of about $25 M on Matt Kemp's contract by shipping him to the Braves for Hector Olivera, another guy with a bad contract. The Padres immediately released the troubled Olivera. So, why didn't the Braves just release Olivera themselves? They get a net gain of about $3.5 M in the deal, although now they have to figure out what to do with Kemp. My guess is Kemp is immediately on the trading block for another bad contract.

The Pirates waived a white flag on the season by shipping closer Mark Melancon to the Nationals for a couple of low level prospects. Seems like the Giants could use Melancon and could afford a better trade package, but what do I know?

The A's shipped out Billy Burns to the Royals for aging prospect Brett Eibner in a head scratching move from the A's standpoint.

Aside from a first-in-history 3-3-5 Triple Play by the Nationals(of course), the most interesting aspect of this game was the fognado that blew through AT&T Park in about the 4'th inning or so. I think Nationals TV commentator FP Santangelo was actually a little scared of it from the way he was talking. Beyond all that, it was another game where the Giants just laid down and died for the other team. We just aren't seeing a lot of fight in these guys since the All-Star Break. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 4. BA= .256. Span got on base. He came home on the line drive that was caught by 1B Ryan Zimmerman and was tripled up at 3B, though.

Angel Pagan- 2 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .289. Pagan has been one of the few Giants hitters not slumping during this current faceplant. He and Span combined to reach base 5 out of 8 PA's only to have the 3, 4 and 5 batters go a combined 0 for 11.

Conor Gillaspie- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .268. It's not clear how all this is going to sort when everybody comes off the DL, but Gillaspie is 5 for 10 in his last 3 games and hitting .338 in his last 30.

Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, 2B, BB, SB(6). BA= .242. I was annoyed to see Blanco in the lineup for this game, but it turns out he was previously 4 for 7 against Max Scherzer. As Krukow would say, ownage is ownage!

Jeff Samardzija- 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.30. Samardzija came out pumping fastballs at the knees. He just does not have secondary pitches to get hitters off balance the second time through a batting order.

Aces scored 5 runs in 5'th inning with what appears to be some BABIP luck. One hit was a sac bunt attempt that the batter beat out and 2 of the other hits were labelled as flyballs in the Game Log. All told, 5 of the 8 Aces hits came in that inning.

The Giants fell behind early in this one and were never really in it. Key Lines:

Conor Gillaspie- 2 for 3. BA= .261. So, what becomes of Gillaspie now that the Giants have traded for Nunez? I mean, I assume they did not give up Adalberto Mejia so Nunez could sit on the bench! Gillaspie is hitting .316 over his last 7 games and .309 over his last 30. Gillaspie and Nunez have similar power but Nunez is clearly faster and is likely a much better fielder.

Johnny Cueto- 5 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.63. Not a terrible line, but when when your lineup depends on moving the line and the line doesn't move, 3 runs is awfully tough to overcome.

In addition to the Nunez trade, Josh Osich was placed on the DL with a forearm strain after undergoing an MRI which reportedly showed no structural damage. Osich seemed to be taken by surprise by the move. As I have been predicting, LHP Matt Reynolds got the promo from Sacramento to take Osich's place. Reynolds has been lights out in the minors. You may remember him from his days with the D'Backs in Arizona.

Joe Panik came off the DL before the game and started at 2B. Grant Green was sent out to make room.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

I have maintained all along that the Giants #1 priority as the 2016 Trade Deadline approached was a hitter who could play either LF or 3B. They landed the 3B today in Eduardo Nunez. If that name sounds vaguely familiar, he was once upon a time the replacement at SS for ARod with the Yankees, as unenviable position as their is in baseball. If you go back and look at Nunez' numbers with the Yankees, he actually played very well. He just wasn't ARod and the Yankees eventually gave up on him and traded for Didi Gregorius. Nunez landed in Minnesota, played last year as a reserve IF and found a starting job this year splitting time between SS and 3B.

Nunez can step right in and play 3B for the Giants and give them an upgrade in both power and speed. His batting line so far this season: .300/.326/.444, 12 HR, 26 SB, 3.6 BB%, 14.2 K% in 391 PA. He is one of just 3 MLB players to have more than 20 SB's and more than 10 HR's this year. As you can see he fits perfectly into the Giants hitting model in that he does not walk a lot but he also does not strike out a lot.

Lest you think Nunez is just a flash in the pan, his numbers from last year are .282/.327/.431, 4 HR, 8 SB, 5.9 BB%, 14.2 K% in 204 PA. His career slash line is .275/.313/.413 in 1635 PA with an average of 11 HR and 33 SB per 600 PA's. Nunez has 1 year of team control left on his contract although he is arbitration eligible.

The Giants give up Adalberto Mejia. Who pitched very well early in the season for Richmond and earned a promo to AAA Sacramento where he had a couple of dominant starts and several not so dominant starts. He was the Giants representative to the international squad for the Futures Game. I like Mejia as a pitcher. I hate to see him go, but the Giants are dealing from incredible depth in their minor league pitching which greatly softens the blow and makes this a solid trade for the Giants.

Now, I'm going to start some trouble here. What do Edwin Escobar, Kendry Flores, Keury Mella and Adalberto Mejia have in common?

Pence sure seems ready, but the Giants plan is for him to get 30 AB's before he is activated from the DL which will not happen until after the 4 game series with the Nationals. Just have to say it sure seems like the Giants could use Pence in the lineup whether his timing is completely down or not.

Menez makes his first start for S-K after a promo from the AZL. He allowed 4 runs in his first 2 innings then settled down to shut out Eugene over the next 3 innings. Hernandez, one of my favorite sleepers in the system, continues to pitch well.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Throughout the first half of the season, the Giants found ways to win with different heroes almost every game. So far in the second half, they are finding ways to lose with different goats almost every game. Today they got a great start from Madison Bumgarner, but were sunk by some sloppy fielding and an almost complete lack of offense. Key Lines:

Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 3, HR(4). BA= .250. You just aren't going to score a lot of runs when your #2, 3 and 4 hitters go a combined 0 for 12. Add in the 0 for 4 from the leadoff guy and yeah, you get the picture!

Madison Bumgarner- 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 2.09. I think it's time to retire the cained meme and find a new one. Madison Bumgarner got bummed today! Bumgarner has a 2.59 ERA over his last 7 starts and has a 2-3 record to show for it. Yup, bumming has replaced caining!

I see 3 unexpected breakout SP's for the Giants this year, Slania, Connolly and Taylor. Last year it was the Johnsons and Coonrod. The Johnson's have disappointed this year, but Coonrod has kept it going.

It was 65 degrees with the wind blowing out to CF at gametime, which counts as the annual Cincinnati Heatwave in SF, and balls were once again flying out of the yard. The Giants were able to keep the line moving enough to build a 9-4 lead and held on for the win. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .257. Span is hitting .344 over his last 7 games and .273 over his last 15.

Mac Williamson- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .267. Bochy had enough confidence in Mac to bat him 3'rd in the lineup against the LHP and Mac produced. He's hitting .427 over his last 7 games, .316 over his last 15 and .284 over his last 30.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .289. Buster is 5 for 9 in his last 3 games.

Brandon Crawford- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .275. Crawford scuffled on the road trip, but seems to have found his stroke again.

Ramiro Pena- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .306. Not sure the Giants want to send Pena anywhere when Tomlinson and Adrianza are done with rehab games.

Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 1. BA= .248. Gillaspie might be on the bubble as he has hit just .152 over his last 15 games.

Matt Cain- 1 for 2, HR(1). BA= .100. Cainer's blast was a 3 run dinger. Giants don't win the game without it!

Matt Cain- 5.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.95. Still some goferitis, but better than his last start. Remember Cain was pitching pretty well after a slow start to the season before he pulled the hammy. I could see him pitching well down the stretch if he can just stay healthy.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.00. These were the first runs Romo has allowed since coming off the DL on July 4.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(22). ERA= 3.35. Good thing Casilla was working with a 3 run lead. Giants need a shutdown closer. Not sure who fits that bill. Jeffress and Will Smith from Milwaukee might be the best bet.

In certain types of weather, AT&T Park plays like a bandbox and it always seems to happen the week the Reds are in town. Last night's game time temperature was 61 degrees, which I believe is about 5 degrees warmer than usual, and the wind was blowing out to CF at 14 MPH. The Giants hit 2 2-run HR's in the game, but the Red hit 3. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .291. Pagan has a shot at beating his previous high in HR's which was 11 in 2010 with the Mets. He hit 8 in 2012, his first season with the Giants. He has also been consistent at the plate hitting .310 over his last 7 games, .313 over his last 15 and .303 over his last 30.

Brandon Belt- 3 for 4, HR(11). BA= .284. Belt moves down in the lineup and breaks out of his slump.

Jake Peavy- 5 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 5 K's, 3 HR's. ERA= 5.42. In case you are wondering, the Giants have allowed a total of 100 HR's this season which ranks them #24 in MLB. Of course, they play half their games in the park which suppresses HR's the most. Samardzija has been the most generous batting practice pitcher giving up 19 which #25 in MLB in HR/9. Peavy has given up 15 with a #28 ranking in HR/9. Matt Cain has given up 11, but in just 59.2 IP which would rank him at #8 in all of MLB if he had enough IP to qualify.

Suarez has kicked it up a notch with 4 QS's in a row covering 27.2 IP, with an ERA of 2.61, 28 K's against 5 BB's. How great of a season is Steven Duggar having? He got an aggressive assignment to San Jose and conquered that by mid-season. Got off to a slow start in AA, but has turned on the afterburners there. In 11 games prior to the AA All-Star Break he hit just .191. In the 10 games since, he's hit .444. Christian Arroyo left the game after 1 AB.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The Giants couldn't get anything going against the Yankees on getaway day, which did not come a day too soon! Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 3 for 5, 3B. BA= .292. Pagan set the table, but the rest of the lineup couldn't get the food served and alas, the triple came with 2 outs.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4. BA= .287. Buster drove in both runs on an emergency check swing that send a grounder down the RF line.

Mac Williamson- 2 for 4. BA= .259. Williamson missed a big RBI opportunity when he came to the plate with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 4'th inning. I'll defend that AB though. He laid off some very close, very nasty cutters to get the count to 3-1. He fouled off the next pitch and the 3-2 pitch was a backup slider which would fool most good hitters and he hit a jam-shot pop-up to the first baseman. Again, the result was not there, but the process was. Once again, if Mac continues to work the count like that, good things are going to happen.

Jeff Samardzija- 5.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.22. In any other ballpark, Samardzija would have gotten to the 6'th inning with just 1 run allowed as Carlos Beltran hit a pop up HR into the RF Yankee Stadium porch. Then in the 6'th he ran into some bad BABIP luck, or his slider flattened out.

Speaking of……….I don't have spray charts of Babe Ruth's HR's but am I the only one who considers his HR record tainted by that damn porch? Ruth had that porch. Aaron had Fulton County Stadium. Barry Bonds and ARod had…. something. Willie Mays had….Candlestick Park? Mays missed his first 2 full MLB seasons that likely cost him a minimum of 60 HR's, probably closer to 70 or even 80. He also had Candlestick Park. He's my all-time HR champion!

George Kontos- 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.64. It was basically mop-up time, but still an impressive outing for Kontos as the Giants approach the trading deadline with relief pitching in their sites.

It will not be a happy flight home for the Giants, but at least they are finally coming home. First series starts tomorrow against Cincinnati with Jake Peavy facing a red hot Anthony De Sclafini. Hopefully we won't have the annual Cincinnati Heat Wave in SF this week.

Oooohwhat was Adrianza doing while he was on the DL? 6 HR in 7 games going back to the Cal League. This was his first AAA game in this rehab. Giants have some serious depth here as Adrianza, Susac, Slater, Tomlinson, Moreno and Matt Reynolds look like they could help now and we all know Pence is going to be a huge addition soon(knocks furiously on wood).

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Johnny Cueto returned to form. Mac Williamson drove in both the Giants runs. The bullpen outlasted the Three-Headed Monster. Giants win in 12 innings. Key Lines:

Trevor Brown- 1 for 2, 2B. BA= .270. Brownie came into the game as PH for Jarrett Parker to face LHP Aroldis Chapman in the 9'th inning. That did not work out, but he led off the 12'th with a double off RHP Anthony Swarzak. Brown is a hot hitter, 5 for 9 in his last 3 games, .364 in his last 7 and .341 in his last 15.

Mac Williamson- 2 for 5, HR(6). BA= .247. Big Mac got the start in RF facing a RHP and ended up getting both of his hits, a no-doubt dinger and the game-winning RBI single in the 12'th. Mac is now 6 for 14 with 3 HR's and 1 2B since the All-Star Break and is starting to gain some confidence from Bruce Bochy. IMO, the Giants need a RH power bat in LF even after Pence gets back. Is Mac that guy?

Bullpen- 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K's. It wasn't always pretty, but the collective bullpen matched goose eggs with the Yankees Three-Headed Monster of Betances, Miller and Chapman and proved to be able to go deeper than the Yanks. Special kudos to Santiago Casilla who came into the game in a non-save, but high-leverage situation after Osich walked the first two batters of the 10'th inning. He shut the Yankees down and then came back out and shut them down again in the 11'th. Also of note: Hunter Strickland had to close it out in the 12'th facing 3 LH batters and that short porch. He did exactly what a RHP with a 98 MPH 2-seam FB should do: He pounded the outside corner with hard stuff tailing away from the LH batters ensuring they would not beat him with a dinger. He did throw a couple of breaking balls, but made sure they broke way off the plate down and in. Very nice Save(2) for Strickland.''

The Giants failed to take advantage of multiple early scoring opportunities and lost a close one to the Yanks. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 5. BA= .257. Span is hitting .367 over his last 7 games.

Brandon Belt- 0 for 5. BA= .281. Belt is 1 for 26 since the All-Star Break.

Buster Posey- 1 for 1, BB. BA= .288. Buster fouled a ball off his back foot in his first AB and left the game later. X-rays were negative and he was diagnosed with a foot contusion.

Jarrett Parker- 0 for 1, 2 BB. BA= .252. The out was a hard hit line drive to CF that carried too far and was caught.

Mac Williamson- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .237. Mac is 4 for 9 with 2 HR and a double since the All-Star Break. This ball was pounded off the LF wall about halfway up. Giants seem to be strictly platooning him and Parker.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4. BA= .276. Crawford made 3 throwing errors in the game. The 3'rd one hurt as it allowed the winning run to score on the play. Crawford was trying to turn an unassisted DP and had to make a 360 turn for the throw to first. That caused the elevation of the throw. It looked like the throw might have been catchable for Belt, but Belt said he did not see it well. Crawford might have tried to do too much, but he's never been on to give up on a play and that attitude has held both him and the Giants in good stead more often than not.

Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.14. Bumgarner was not sharp in the first two innings. He gave up both runs in the first. He settled down after that. It should have been enough, but the Giants squandered at least 3 good scoring opps in the early innings against Tanaka.

Yeah Hunter Pence! I'm more impressed by the double than the HR as he had to run out the double. Maybe Pence is closer to a MLB return than we thought yesterday? Seems like if ATL is looking for a starting catcher for next year, they could do worse than trading for Andrew Susac. Stratton follows up his dominant last start with a QS.

Can't attribute this HR for Adrianza to the high desert. For those of you waiting with baited breath for a Miguel Gomez line, here it is! Interesting that Gomez played 2B with Adrianza at 3B. Viz Jr is hitting .417 over his last 10 games.

DSL Giants also won a 10 inning game vs Cubs2 7-6. This was the completion of a previously suspended game. I couldn't make head or tails out of where the game picked up from so am not posting highlights from the boxscore.

You might have reasonably had some trepidation about Matt Cain making his return from the DL against the Red Sox in Boston. If you did, you were right to be trepidated as he lasted just 2.1 innings and departed amidst a hail of dingers. Albert Suarez was not much better and the Giants offense could not keep up. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 4, BB. BA= .254. After going 0 for 9 in his first 2 games after missing time with a neck strain, Span is 9 for 25 in his last 6 games.

Trevor Brown- 3 for 5, HR(5). BA= .261. Brownie hit his 5'th dinger in 116 PA which projects to about 29 HR in 600 PA's. Can Brownie play 3B? He's played 2B in the minors and has enough arm to play C in the majors, so you would think so.

Ramiro Pena- 2 for 5. BA= .348. Ruben Tejada got the DFA to make room for Matt Cain. Pena sticks around for the time being.

Matt Cain- 2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 5.88. Rough return from the DL for Cainer. Not sure what else to say. He'll get his chances to get his feet back on the ground in the rotation.

Albert Suarez- 3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 4.19. Suarez has pitched well in a swingman role this year, but hadn't pitched in about 2 weeks and has a tendency to give up the longball. That combination gave Hanley Ramirez his 3'rd dinger of the night by the 6'th inning. Ty Blach may be next in line if Cain and Suarez can't get back on track.

The Giants have now gone through 1 full turn of the rotation without a win out of the All-Star Break. They get a day off before starting a weekend series against the Yankees in NY. Madison Bumgarner tries to be the stopper but has to face the Yankee's ace, Masahiro Tanaka on Friday night.

Jake Peavy gave up a couple of longballs and Rick Porcello shut down the Giants offense as they remained winless in the official second half. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 4. BA= .252. Span's bat seems to be warming up a bit. 4 for 12 over his last 3 games.

Angel Pagan- 2 for 4. BA= .289. Top of the order went a combined 4 for 8 while the rest of the lineup got just 1 hit. Is it just me, or is the Giants biggest need at the trade deadline a middle-of-the-order bat? I mean, I love Brandon Crawford, but he's not a #5 hitter. With Hunter Pence's rehab progressing in fits and starts, I don't know if they can count on him being healthy again this season.

Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs had some cautiously good things to say about Fabian and Heyward. Said Fabian is a good looking prospect, but a long ways off. Heyward has tools but is playing at too low a level. I agree.

Heyward needs to move to a higher level, but he's making it a grand slam in the Giants 2016 draft for OF's: Reynolds, Quinn, Brusa and Heyward. I think Nick Hill was drafted as an OF too, but he played 3B in this game. I like Malique Zeigler too, but he's more of a long term project.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Johnny Cueto had a subpar start and Edwin Jackson(yes, THAT Edwin Jackson!) was up to his old tricks of effective wildness as the Giants completed a faceplant out of the All-Star Break getting swept in San Diego. Key Lines:

Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 2, HR(3). BA= .260. Gillaspie's 3 run PH dinger was one of just 2 hits the Giants mustered against Jackson who walked 5 batters.

Johnny Cueto- 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.63. He only pitched 2 innings in the ASG, and he did not have to travel anywhere afterward, but Cueto appeared to be fatigued. His side was apparently hurting before the game to the point where Jake Peavy thought he might end up starting instead of Cueto and got taped up early. Cueto and Samardzija both had rough second halves last year, so we'll have to hope the Giants pitcher whisperers figure something out. And if Cueto is fatigued and hurting, they might consider putting him on the DL as a preventative measure. I think a 2 week DL stint should be built into almost every pitcher's schedule at some point in the season.

Edwin Jackson- 6.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.76. Yup, it's THAT Edwin Jackson! I had a bad feeling about this game as soon as I saw his name as the scheduled starter.

Pence came out of the game after grabbing his hammy running down to 1B on the hit. Yikes! Giants say he felt fine after the game and it might have been some scar tissue breaking. Hmm…..don't know about that. Austin Slater is hitting .286 over his last 10 games and is 6 for 14 over his last 3. This might be the most dominant start of Chris Stratton's pro career. Brings back memories of his college junior season when double digit K's were routine for him.

Santiago Casilla turned a stirring Giants comeback win into a crushing defeat with what might have been the worst Blown Save of his career, and that is saying something. Key Lines:

Denard Span- 2 for 5. BA= .251. Span got a couple of hits and scored a run. Kuip, who was doing color commentary for this game, as much as said Span is not 100% physically.

Angel Pagan- 3 for 5, HR(5). BA= .289. Pagan's 2-run dinger got the Giants back into this game. The carry on the ball to RF foreshadowed more HR's to come. Have I said Pagan is a dynamic player when he's healthy?

Buster Posey- 3 for 5, 2B, HR(12). BA= .293. With Brandon Belt in a mini-slump, Buster picked up the slack. I am not sure the HR pitch was even in the strike zone. Buster reached out and took a high-outside pitch the other way and it carried into the second section of the RF bleachers for the first HR in extra innings of his career to give the Giants a 6-5 lead, much to the delirious delight of the young blonde woman sitting with her parents behind the Giants dugout. They did not show her reaction to Casilla's Blown Save a few minutes later.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.35. Is Romo ready to take over the Closer role, or do the Giants need to make a trade? Who would they trade for?

Santiago Casilla- 0.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K, BS(5). ERA= 3.38. Oh my! It is hard to describe how bad this was. Casilla, who in fairness had not pitched for a week, came out and threw 2 pitches to leadoff batter Chris Dickerson that were nowhere close to the strike zone. He then threw a get-it-over pitch that Dickerson lined over Crawford's head for a single. That brought up Derek Norris, who Kuip reminded us hit a HR off Casilla in 2012 when he was with the A's that knocked Casilla out of the Closer's role in favor of Sergio Romo and the rest is history. Casilla couldn't find the strike zone against Norris either and he singled to right-center sending Dickerson to 3'rd. Norris then stole 2B without a throw to put the winning run at 2B, still with 0 outs. Casilla seemed to settle down against Adam Rosales and got to 0-2, but then couldn't get him to chase and then pitched to contact with Rosales hitting a seeing-eye single through the left side to drive in the tying run with Norris going to 3B. By this time, the die was probably already cast, but on the first pitch to Alexei Ramirez, who I thought should have been given an intentional walk to load the bases and create a force at all bases, Casilla stumbled off the rubber and threw awkwardly to the plate on a bounce. It was a balk and the winning run scored.

I've heard of games being won on a walk-off balk, but had never seen one. Twitterverse is calling it a balk-off! I will say this: If what Carter Capps does is not a balk, then I'm not sure why Casilla's stumble was.

The Loss did not hurt as much as it could have as Kenley Jansen, who is supposed to be an elite closer, blew his 4'th Save of the season and the Dodgers lost to he D'Backs in extra-innings 2-1. The Giants remain 5.5 games ahead of he Bad Guys in the NL West.

I know they play sillyball up in Lancaster, but yikes, Matt Cain! And LOL Craig Whitaker(our Roger Craig Whitaker?) off Baggs twitter feed via Joe Ritzo: A rehab start in Lancaster is like driver's ed on the 405. Nothing good is going to come of it."

The Padres took advantage of a few mistake pitches by Madison Bumgarner and the Giants offense could not get anything going against Andrew Cashner as the Giants stumbled to a loss out of the All-Star Break. Key Lines:

Madison Bumgarner- 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 9 K's, 2 HR. ERA= 2.12. As you can see from the K/BB, Bumgarner had good stuff. His command did seem to be off just a tad and his pitches up in the zone more often than usual. The ball seemed to have a bit extra carry in Petco last night too. But the hits that did the damage, Solarte's double and the HR's by Rosales and Myers were definitely fat pitches that were hit hard.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

We'll take advantage of the All-Star Break to to a midseason Q/A. Fire away with any baseball related questions. I'll post them during the day and respond this evening. If readers want to comment in the meantime, that's OK.

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.